India to Focus on Solar Energy

Jun 01, 2008 - The Times of India

NEW DELHI - The much-awaited national
climate change action plan is almost ready. As per
the final draft, to be discussed by the PM's Climate
Change Council on June 2, the government has decided
to launch eight national missions. These eight focus
areas will be implemented in a time-bound fashion
as part of India's domestic agenda to counter impacts
of climate change and reduce the country's emissions
of greenhouse gases.

The draft recommends a mission to boost the use of
solar energy in India's energy mix. The action plan
suggests using not only existing solar technology
but also working on new materials like solar concentrators
to increase the use of solar energy. The mission
will work with the private sector to build an initial
kitty of several billion rupees and create the production
capacity to serve both urban and rural markets. Just
as the wind industry had got a fillip under benevolent
regimes, the mission could give a major boost to
the nebulous solar energy market in India.

Though
the draft could still be amended during deliberations
on June 2, sources said the eight thrust areas could
more or less remain intact with some changes within
the finer provisions.

The draft has been eagerly awaited
by the Indian industry and other countries as it
will lay down
the basemap for large future investments by the country
as well as be the policy for "decarbonising" India's
growth trajectory - reducing India's dependence on
fossil fuels.

Another mission will increase the energy efficiency
levels in the way India constructs and runs its
cities, offices, houses and other built environment.
This
mission will focus on management of solid waste
treatment as well as give a push to public transport
systems.
Already, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency has come
up with standards and is working on financing mechanisms
to not only overhaul existing buildings but to
improve entire municipalities and townships as
well.

The Green India project, that the government has
already announced with the backing of an existing
Rs 7,500 crore corpus, will form the backbone
of an afforestation mission covering 6 million
hectares
over a period of 10 years.

Another mission to green Indian agriculture will
work to increase the resistance of crop systems
to climate change by using biotechnology and
geo-spatial data as well as information technology.
In tandem,
the government wants to start a water mission
that will work towards improving efficiency
in the hydro
sector. The government plans to set an ambitious
target which will be achieved by developing
and deploying
technologies like desalination as well as waste-recycling.

Responding to studies pointing to grave threat
to the fragile Himalayan ecosystem, the government
has
decided to start a sustaining Himalayas commission.
The mission will work to protect the glacial
systems that some studies suggest could be
melting fast
under the influence of global warming. The
mission will
work to protect the communities in the region
as well as increase the depth of scientific
research on the mountain range.

nitin.sethi@timesgroup.com

(c) 2008 The Times of India. Provided by
ProQuest Information and Learning. All
rights Reserved.